How Marketing Strategies Shape Customers' Warmth and Competence Judgments of Organizations and Their Divergent Effects on Key Marketing Outcomes

摘要

Given the fundamental role of warmth and competence in social perception, it is not surprising that initial research in marketing found that consumers strongly rely on warmth and competence judgements to make sense of organizations in consumption contexts (Aaker, Vohs, and Mogilner 2010; Gao and Mattila 2014). Therefore, it is of crucial importance for marketing research and practice to gain deeper insights into (a) how customers' judgments of an organization's warmth and competence affect their attitudes and behavior towards the organization and (b) how an organization may influence customers' judgements about their warmth and competence. Therefore, the current study makes a first attempt to address these research questions by offering a differentiated picture on the consequences and antecedents of customers' warmth and competence judgments of organizations. Specifically, we develop a conceptual framework to investigate the complex interplay between these central dimensions and their differential effects on key marketing outcomes; i.e., customer satisfaction, customer-company identification, and share of wallet. In acknowledgment of the significance of customers' warmth and competence judgements of an organ- ization in shaping important marketing outcomes, the study additionally explores how core marketing strategies such as corporate social responsibility and market aggressiveness influence customer perceptions of organizations' warmth and competence.